The process of loading and unloading material from railroad tank cars has typically been accomplished at a rail yard or terminal. The need for a rail yard or terminal to load and unload railroad tank cars is both costly and time consuming. First, the construction of a rail yard or terminal can be both expensive and time consuming. Problems associated with developing a rail yard or terminal include finding a suitable place to build the yard or terminal. To find a suitable place, an entity must first find a significant amount of land to construct the terminal in an area zoned to allow for such construction. Furthermore, the zoned areas may not be close to an area the entity wishes to deliver the tank cars, thereby increasing transportation costs after unloading. Next, the entity must successfully maneuver through the permit process, mindful that neighborhood associations in the surrounding area and government agencies may be against the development of a railroad terminal. Then, the entity must locate a financing source to fund the construction of the yard or terminal. Construction costs include the laying of track; infrastructure improvements, including buildings, gangways, and material storage facilities; and the lease or purchase of locomotives to maneuver the railroad tank cars into a position where they can be unloaded. Finally, a great deal of time must be taken to construct the rail yard or terminal with no guarantee how long the facility will be financially viable.
Second, a typical rail yard or terminal can take a great amount of time to load or unload multiple rail tank cars. Even if the terminal has multiple loading and unloading stations, these stations are typically fixed in place. Thus, when a first railroad tank car is finished being loaded or unloaded, a locomotive must be used to move the first railroad tank car out of the station, retrieve a second railroad tank car from another area, and move the second railroad tank car into the station. The amount of time can be further exacerbated by the fact that rail cars are not always delivered to a terminal in an order that allows for the efficient carrying out of the loading and unloading process. The need to maneuver rail cars also requires a greater amount of space at the terminal, thereby further increasing the cost.
Third, the demand for some types of material is seasonal and dependent on the area of the country. Thus, while a company may find a need to deliver a high quantity of cars during some months of the year, the same company may need to make few if any deliveries in other months. Such fluctuations can keep the building of a rail yard of terminal from being cost effective. Furthermore, the ability to load or unload a railroad tank car quickly and efficiently in close proximity to the material's final destination would reduce overall transportation costs and increase profitability.
Recently, parties who transfer liquid from railroad tank cars have been allowed to transfer the liquid directly from the tank car to another mobile storage medium, such as a tanker truck. Thus, unloading operations are no longer required to first transfer the liquid from the railroad tank car to a large, stationary holding tank and then transfer it to a second mobile storage medium. The ability to directly transfer from one mobile container to another has both eliminated the need for large scale holding tanks and the fixed unloading stations build in their vicinity. Now, as long as a second mobile storage medium can be positioned near the railroad tank car, any place can be a loading or unloading site, as long as the equipment necessary for transferring the liquid can also be maneuvered into the same general area as the railroad tank car and the second mobile storage medium.
Some entities have attempted to eliminate the need for a rail yard or terminal by developing a conventional mobile platform to hold equipment necessary for unloading a railroad tank car. To unload a railroad tank car using a conventional mobile platform, a user could move the mobile platform into a position near the railroad tank car. The equipment necessary to unload the railroad tank car could then be unloaded off of a transport platform and assembled on the conventional mobile platform. Once the unloading process is completed, the equipment can be dismantled and loaded back onto the transport platform and the conventional mobile platform can be towed away.
While the mobile platform may be an improvement both in cost and time consumed in unloading railroad tank cars it still has several drawbacks. First, the mobile platform usually requires A/C power to operate. This means that the conventional mobile platform can never be used in rural areas devoid of electrical hook-ups. Second, if a user wants to take the mobile platform on a road or highway, the unloading equipment usually is dismantled from the mobile platform and placed on a transport platform attached to a vehicle for transport. Thus, extra time can be consumed in building and dismantling the mobile platform at each unloading site. Therefore, the mobile platform cannot be characterized as completely portable.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a portable liquid material transfer unit that can access rail cars of differing heights, can be moved to any area accessible by motorized vehicles, and can quickly and easily be prepared for transport on a road or highway after use.